Life After Death
by Panda Days
Summary: What happens when Sasori is “reincarnated” after his death? Will the strings of fate bring him back together with the one he loves once more even without memories of them?
1. Beginnings

**Beginnings**

**Disclaimer: **_I do not own Naruto, nor do I own Naruto Shippuden and any of the characters associated with it._

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Death. It had never really been something that Sasori thought deeply about. To him it was just the end of your consciousness and the gradual decay of your mortal body. Was that why he became a puppet himself? Or was it to be one with his perfect puppets? That, was the mystery. Why had he not dodged Granny Chiyo's attack then when he had been perfectly capable of doing so? That was something even he himself could not answer, maybe he just wanted to be finally laid to rest by the hands of his "parents"…

_Art is everlasting…_

---

The bright rays of the morning sun penetrated through his blinds, inevitably waking Sasori up. It was just another day of his boring life, he thought to himself as he stiffly got out of bed and did his usual morning routine. Take a shower, eat breakfast, brush your teeth… It was all the same, with no deviation. Getting dressed in his usual Suna ninja garb he stepped out of his house and mentally prepared himself for the day's challenges.

The night before he'd been given a mission by the current Kazekage, Gaara. It seemed pretty simple enough. He was supposed to take out some enemy ninja spies that had been slinking around the Village Hidden in the Sand.

Waving a greeting to Granny Chiyo he headed off out of the village. Granny Chiyo… She was a weird old lady, when he'd become a jounin and moved just a couple houses away from her she'd given him this weird look every time she saw him. He wasn't sure what it meant, but it was definitely odd. It was like a look of longing, confusion, and sorrow. It was like they had a relationship with each other even though he knew nothing more about her than her name.

Shaking these troublesome thoughts from his head he headed for the entrance of the village. When the village entrance was finally within sight, Sasori saw a faint outline of another ninja there waiting for him. It was Kankuro. Sasori was usually a one-man team for missions, but Gaara had evidently thought that this would be a challenging one to send someone else with him.

"**You ready?"**, Kankuro asked with a gruff voice, showing neither kindness or rudeness.

Sasori merely nodded as an answer to the older man's question and sprinted off after him without another word as they left the village.

The mission was definitely easy. There were about twenty ninja spies, and taking them out had only taken a little over an hour, with both Kankuro and Sasori sustaining only a few minor injuries. What really intrigued Sasori about this fight however, was Kankuro's fighting style. He didn't understand how the older man's movements were still so fluid when fighting with _puppets_. He had been fighting efficiently, and was never a hindrance to Sasori. His movements were natural, as if he wasn't even a little deterred by fighting with such odd "weapons". Sasori didn't dare question it though, who was he to judge someone else's fighting style when it so clearly worked for them?

After the fight though, as they were taking their sweet time getting back to the village, Sasori felt the odd need to ask Kankuro about it. It wasn't really in his character to get so curious about something as trivial as this, but it was as if his heart was longing for an answer… Maybe.

"**How do you fight so easily with puppets?"**, Sasori asked casually. It was a pretty logical question he thought. You had to control them with multiple chakra strings so it was as if you were fighting with your fingers the whole time. It seemed like a lot like hand signs, but with a lot more strings attached. Literally.

"**Oh, you're interested in puppetry, kid?"**, Kankuro had answered back with a question. For some reasons unknown to him, Sasori thought that he could detect a nervous hint in Kankuro's voice as he answered his question. It seemed a little irrational to the red head, so he'd just put the thought out of his head for the time being.

"**I might be."**, he answered indifferently.

_[ Kankuro's PoV ]_

"_I might be."_

'_Oh shit.'_, Kankuro thought to himself as Sasori answered the question. He'd really have to think carefully about his next response to the boy, as not to lead him on or anything. How would Gaara, or even Granny Chiyo react to him motivating the boy who was the spitting image of Akasuna no Sasori to take on puppetry? Not well, he knew that for sure.

But it was just a coincidence right? The same red hair, cold brown eyes, attitude…? And now the sudden interest in puppetry. Sure the real Sasori had taken up puppetry so much earlier than the Sasori before him at this moment, but what did _that_ mean compared to all this? He didn't want to be held accountable if another Akasuna no Sasori was born because of his mistakes.

"**Well?"**, the words and the look Sasori had flashed him then shook him out of his thoughts. He had to answer, and he had to answer _now_ to avoid looking suspicious.

"**Puppetry is a very complex skill, kid. It's not something to be learned overnight or even in a few weeks. It takes dedication to be truly able to use it in a fight."**, he wondered, no _hoped_ that he'd deterred Sasori with his words, but to his dismay it seemed that the red headed boy was even more interested now. Before Sasori could corner him with his words Kankuro decided to add another suggestion. If this was really going to happen, then the best for this job was Granny Chiyo. By all means. **"If you're really sure that you're interested in puppetry, I'd say that you talk to Granny Chiyo about it. She would be better than me to teach a beginner."**, he suggested with a weak smile.

Somewhere in his gut though, Kankuro had a really bad feeling about this. This definitely wouldn't end well for the Suna village, he just knew it.

_[ Sasori's PoV ]_

Kankuro's constant avoiding of his questions was sure interesting. He wasn't sure why he'd be so dodgy about this subject as he'd seemed to him like a puppet master who'd be eager to teach others of the art, but Sasori nodded nonetheless. If Kankuro didn't want to teach him then he'd accept it, and not badger the man until he gave in.

The rest of the trip home was carried out in silence, neither of them spoke, and neither gave any inclination of wanting to speak. The silence was rather relaxing to Sasori, he wasn't really the type of person to really enjoy long heart-to-heart conversations, so the silence was very well welcomed to him. The only thing bothering him on their return trip however, was the thought of having to talk to Granny Chiyo.

He'd grown to accept, or at least _try_ to accept all the weird looks she'd give him on a day to day basis. It was odd, but he could always just ignore it, but now if he really wanted to learn more about puppets then he'd have to have a full blown conversation with her… This was such a hassle.

What made it worse was that he'd had no interest in puppetry what-so-ever until this day, and going on that mission with Kankuro. To him it'd always been just that to him. Just puppets, nothing really special, and nothing to laugh about, but now because of his troublesome heart he'd have to do two things that he didn't really like to do.

Get in a conversation with someone, and to actually talk to Granny Chiyo, of all the people in the Suna village.

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Annnd, done. xD I dunno, I was planning on making this chapter so much longer, but then I kind of ran out of inspiration and a lot of other things occurred that kind of deterred the progress. xD So what did you think about it, people? o uo Reviews are loved~ xD )-b

I will try and make each chapter be over 1000 words long. o uo)-b But remember, things happen so don't kill me if I can't keep that promise, yeah? xD I'll also try and squeeze in _at least_ one update a month. It's my goal to do one every week, or every other week, but yeah, I'll try and have some realistic dreams. :'D

Hm, and also, this is either gonna be a SasorixDeidara fic or a SasorixSakura fic, I'm leaning more to SS at the moment, because I know how I'd plan it out, but since I'm more of a SD fan maybe you guys can change my mind. x3 Be sure to voice out your opinions if you Review as that may alter my decision! 8D

**Word Count:** 1305


	2. No Turning Back

**No Turning Back**

_Blood Drenched Scorpion:_ I'll have to stick with SasoDei then. C: Sakura _will_, however, make an appearance next chapter [ or the one after that ] and she'll kind of help Sasori gain back a few of his memories from his past self. But she'll only be in like one or two chapters, I'll definitely get rid of her, but how I'm going to do it will be a secret for now. ;D It'll hint to SasoSaku for a bit I guess, but the story will definitely end in SasoDei. C: And Sasori will be Seme in this fic. C: Deidara will have that spot covered until Sasori regains all his memories. ;D He'll be sixteen in this fic. I realize that there'll be an age difference between him and pretty much everyone he interacted with in the original Shippuden, but we can all overlook this fact, yeah? xD -shot- I'm done rambling now. :'D Onto the chapter!

**Disclaimer: **_I do not own Naruto, nor do I own Naruto Shippuden and any of the characters associated with it._

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Sasori waved good-bye to Kankuro before parting ways with the man. Kankuro had said that he'd give the report to Gaara and that Sasori should just rest. Whatever that meant anyway, he was pretty sure that Kankuro had just wanted to get rid of him, not that he minded the silence and solitude really. He decided that he'd go home and take a shower or something before visiting Chiyo. One would need all the time they could get to mentally prepare themselves before engaging a "nut-case" in a conversation.

The evening had barely begun as he got home and flicked on his living room lights. Discarding his weapons by the rug near the entrance of his door he proceeded to walk to the bathroom in a noticeably slower gait than before. He'd preserve whatever time he could before going to see her. Of course there was always seeing her in the morning, but who knew what she'd be like after getting disturbed so early.

Once he arrived in the bathroom he discarded the rest of his apparel and stepped into the shower. The relaxing warmth of the water was very welcome as they soothed his tense muscles. Feeling perfectly at ease in the first time in a long time Sasori merely relaxed and let the rest of his shower pass by in peace.

The shower had ended much earlier than he would've liked, but regardless of that he still stepped out. Drying himself off he put on his pants and lazily placed his towel on his shoulders. It wouldn't be long now…

Getting dressed wasn't really something one could really… Delay the progress of, so Sasori was finished within moments of starting. Sighing to himself, and wondering why he was getting so worked up with a simple meeting with the old lady he headed for the door. He paused before turning the handle and wondered if he ought to get his story straight before going over there.

Was he "merely passing by and got curious", or "had he been meaning to ask her about this?" **"This is so stupid, what's wrong with me?"**, he asked himself irritably before turning the doorknob and leaving.

The chilly evening air hit him like a bucket of water, and he shivered slightly before proceeding to lock his door and head for her house. Was this a warning, or was he just being pointlessly superstitious again?

It was one of those "now or never" things and he chose "now" before proceeding to walk towards her house. Once at her house he paused with his hand curled up into a fist and poised to knock on her door. Really, what was he waiting for?

Rather than having to knock of his own accord, Granny Chiyo seemed to do it for him. Just like that the door flew open and inside revealed a rather shocked looking Chiyo.

"**S-Sasori…"**, she stuttered before seeming to get a hold of herself and hardening her gaze. **"What do you want?"**, she asked.

It seemed to Sasori as if she was just itching to slam the door in his face, but he was kind of glad that she didn't do that. Her question however, had been unexpectedly blunt and straight to the point. **"Puppets."**, he simply stated at first, before bothering to elaborate for her. **"Kankuro referred me to you after I told him that I was interested to puppets. I can leave, if you want."**, he said simply, his eyes never betraying his curiosity, and staying as cold and as emotionless as ever.

Chiyo's eyes seemed to narrow more, if that was even possible, and a look of suspicion seemed to cloud her gaze. Sasori was poised to leave when she finally spoke.

"**Very well."**, she said. **"You can come in."**, she continued, stepping aside with a quick gesture of her hands for him to get in.

Sasori, for one, was rather surprised at her seemingly sudden change of attitude. The Granny Chiyo he knew, or at least experienced had been an intrapersonal person, and seemed more borderline crazy than anything else, but the woman before him now seemed… More authoritative.

"**Well what are you waiting for? I'm not getting any younger."**, she snapped irritably, ushering him inside the house.

Normally Sasori would've reacted negatively to her attitude, but instead, he found a slight amused smirk forming on his face. She sure was getting more and more interesting by the minute.

Walking in calmly, he waited for her to close the door to follow her into her living room. It was a pretty small house, probably the result of living alone, but he chose to ignore that simple fact and seat himself onto the nearest couch.

"**Puppets."**, Granny Chiyo had repeated before seating herself as well. **"That's all you're here for?"**, she asked.

It seemed like a rather remedial question to Sasori, but he still answered patiently nonetheless. **"It's what I said beforehand, isn't it?**

_[ Granny Chiyo's PoV ]_

As the minutes rolled by with her being in close proximity of Sasori, she found herself calming down, little by little. This couldn't be the grandson she'd raised. He couldn't be the man who betrayed the Suna village to join the Akatsuki. He couldn't be the one who she killed all those years ago.

When he replied with that smart comment of his, Chiyo felt a little more reassured. It really wasn't him after all. **"Don't be smart with me, boy."**, she said with a glint in her eyes. **"So how old are you?"**

Sasori seemed shocked at the question, and Chiyo felt amused that she could spark up that sort of reaction from him. The look died away immediately of course, and was replaced with that cold gaze Sasori was so good at. She hated that look. It wasn't befitting of her grandson, nor was it good on this man.

_[ Sasori's PoV ]_

How was that question even relevant to puppetry? There probably wasn't an age _limit_, considering how old Chiyo was, or appeared to be, but perhaps there was a certain age that one had to be _at least_, to be able to learn the art.

"**Sixteen."**, he replied honestly.

Chiyo seemed to smile at that answer, but one could never be too sure with all those wrinkles she had. **"Good, good. Now what are your thoughts on art?"**

What was this, twenty questions or something? Despite the absolute irrelevancy of the answer, Sasori still gave a little thought to his answer before answering. **"Art should be everlasting. Art that ends just as soon as it begins shouldn't even be considered art."**

At that, Sasori couldn't help but notice the look of utter shock and disbelief on Granny Chiyo's face. Did she really think that his answer was that ridiculous? He waited for her to just reject him, and not teach him, but that never happened, rather, another composed look replaced that earlier look of shock.

"**Good, good."**, she answered, as if she'd been unfazed by it all. **"Last question before we begin. What got you interested in puppetry in the first place?"**

That question was admittedly hard to even Sasori. He wasn't completely sure _why_ he suddenly got interested in it, and only knew that he _did_. It had just happened when he was out there with Kankuro. When he'd experienced the art of puppetry for the first time. Was it fate? No. There was something more to this, something that Sasori just couldn't put his finger on.

---

Meanwhile, at Gaara's office, Kankuro was giving the full details of the mission report.

"… **And then, after the battle, Sasori questioned me about puppetry. I think exposing him to this experience has somehow led him on to being interested in it, but I'm not sure. I didn't know how to answer him at the time without seeming to suspicious or fake so I just referred him to Granny Chiyo. I think that if anyone should even speak about puppetry around him, it should be her."**

Gaara had a thoughtful look on his face that disguised what he truly felt on the inside. If this Sasori were to somehow regain the memories of the Sasori preceeding him, then what would that mean for the Suna village? Surely it wouldn't end well. **"Is that all that happened?"**, he asked finally.

"**Yes."**

"**Good, then you're dismissed."**, Gaara concluded.

"**Good luck."**, Kankuro seemed to mutter before exiting the office in a puff of smoke.

Whatever happened next would be in Chiyo's hands, Gaara concluded grimly. As much as he would've liked having this all falling down on his shoulders, he knew that Chiyo would be the best for the job. What was to come of the Suna village, and of this new Sasori would be resting at the tips of Chiyo's fingers…

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That was a rather fast update if I do say so myself. o _o Don't expect this to happen often. XD But anyway, hoped you enjoyed it, and please Review! 8D This was kinda like a filler chapter I guess. o _o Not much action. xD

**Word Count:** 1471


	3. Introductory to Puppetry

**Introductory to Puppetry**

**Disclaimer: **_I do not own Naruto, nor do I own Naruto Shippuden and any of the characters associated with it._

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Silence followed for another minute before Sasori concluded that answering honestly would be the best way to answer a question like that. A long-winded explanation only made it seem like you were trying too hard.** "After witnessing Kankuro's puppetry I just realized that I'd have to learn it myself. There's nothing more to it than that."**

Chiyo must've realized that that would be the best answer she'd get out of him or something, but either way she simply accepted it without complaint. **"Very well, we start tomorrow, no off with you."**

Sasori could hardly contain the look of shock and disbelief plastered on his face. **"Excuse me?"**

"**Are you deaf, I said get going! Leave or heads will roll."** She demanded, firmly.

Instead of choosing to argue with the old lady about how they'd probably only talked for thirty minutes, or about the fact that she said something like "heads will roll" Sasori merely obliged and headed for the door.

Chiyo walked behind him, and before closing the door she merely said, **"6 am tomorrow morning. Sharp. You better be at my doorsteps ready to train or you can forget about it." **Then without giving him a chance to say anything she slammed the door shut.

'_Good grief.'_ He thought irritably before going back to his house. All this trouble for a spur of the moment decision, the question now was: was it really worth it?

_[ Granny Chiyo's PoV ]_

She wasn't sure why she'd agreed, but really, could she have disagreed? Honestly speaking she would've done anything to get to see her grandson speaking, but logically speaking she would never do such a thing. Even if it was possible.

Sighing Chiyo sat down on the nearest seat and recalled the story on how Sasori, this Sasori, had arrived at the Suna village.

_Just a few months after Sasori's death a mysterious cloaked figure had arrived in the Suna village, he'd been stopped by the guards of course, but they were all caught off guard the moment he unhooded himself. He revealed himself as "Sasori". Merely Sasori, last name unknown, origin unknown, he had just been a mysterious character with no past to tell of. What's more was what he did the moment he got in the village._

_He'd requested to see the Kazekage of the village, which, at the time had been no other than Gaara. Once Sasori had met Gaara he requested permission to live in the village as one of its ninja. He had experience, and power, but he was lacking a village to call home, and, for some reason he'd declared that the Suna village would be the ideal village for him to live in. "The one he was destined to belong to" he had said._

_With no real reason to trust the man Gaara had thought about it before giving him a temporary home by Chiyo's own home. If there was one thing that Gaara had been sure of at the time, it was that Chiyo would be the most reliable for the job._

_Every day, for around half a year Sasori's every move had been monitored, be it by Chiyo, the other ninjas, or even Gaara himself. Sasori wasn't a spy, he didn't even seem like he could be a harm to the village. He was just a boy in need of a home, so reluctantly, after many meetings about Sasori he'd finally been accepted as a Suna ninja.  
_

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The harsh ring of his alarm greeted, and inevitably awoke him as Sasori got out of bed and prepared for his "training" with Chiyo.

Everything went by smoothly and soon he was out the door just a few minutes before six. He was greeted by an almost bitter silence as he stepped out the door, as if even nature was warning him of what was to come. Shaking off any doubt that still lingered in his head about this he headed for Granny Chiyo's house, and before long he found himself knocking on the door.

There was silence as first, and Sasori inwardly wondered if she'd forgotten about the promised training, but before long there was a faint answer from the other side of the door. **"Just open it, it's unlocked."**

It was uncanny, how in the dim sunlight the house seemed even more cryptic than it had seemed last night with the lights turned on. Of course he wasn't one to talk with the boring house he owned, he'd somehow expected more out of Chiyo's house. A feeling of warmth, maybe? If the bitter old woman possessed any warmth at all that was.

The weirdest thing about the house, however, wasn't its lack of warmth. No, it was the fact that almost half the pictures were face down instead of facing upward. Were they that way last night? Not getting much of a chance to ponder more about this Sasori was rushed into what seemed to be the storage room of the house.

"**What's this?"** he asked boredly once Chiyo had turned on the lights. The question was rather remedial though, seeing as how the room was covered in puppets. Plain, undecorated puppets; most didn't even have eyes.

As if sensing what Sasori thought Chiyo moved on without answering his question. **"Pick a puppet or two, to use. Be precise with your choice, because they'll be the only puppets you'll be using so if you break them you're out of luck unless you can make yourself some new ones."**

Without questioning her, or even wondering why she would be so stingy about this seeing as how the room was chock full of puppets Sasori merely stepped into the room and looked around, examining each puppet. They all seemed the same to him, cold lifeless puppets, but he was sure that there was a secret to this somehow, a trick perhaps, so continued on with his examination.

Soon after he'd made a choice. Two puppets, each almost an exact opposite of the other. The first was smaller, thinner, more lithe and suited for "quicker" actions, and the other was slightly bulkier. Perfect as a shield of sorts, or maybe for having secret components for hidden weapons.

"**Good choices. Now follow me." **She said as she led them out the room and back into the living room.

"**I'll teach you about the basics of puppetry today and you'll go home and practice. Be sure to make those puppets your own before you come back tomorrow. Add hair and eyes, weapons, anything you can think of really. The real training comes tomorrow."**

Alright, so what was today? Another boring day, huh, it seemed as if they were getting nowhere, and yet it was obvious that they were making progress.

"**The most important thing to remember about puppetry is the facts that all the strings lie in your fingers. You will use chakra strings to control your puppets. As time progresses you may be capable of controlling many puppets at a time, maybe even hundreds, but for now we'll just focus on two at a time.**

"**Puppets can be used in close combat or long-ranged. Most do the latter, but really you can definitely do both with practice. As cheesy as it sounds you need to kind of 'become one with your puppet'. There'll be no time to slack off and you need to pay attention to everything. You need to fight with your puppet, and at the same time you need to be able to defend yourself should someone try to sneak attack you.**

"**Keep steady streams of chakra stream flowing out of your fingers at all times. Too much or too little chakra can greatly disrupt your control of the puppet or even stop your control all together. To start off with your chakra strings will probably be blatantly, but as you train you'll be able to make them less and less obvious until they're pretty much invisible to the human eye. That'll be key when we come to it, because we don't want your opponents breaking your strings, your only forms of control over your puppets.**

"**Enough talk. Any questions?"** she asked, as if daring him to say that he didn't understand something, which would probably prompt her to give some smart response.

"**None at all."** He replied, resisting the compulsion to yawn. This was all good and all, but with what little research he'd done on the subject himself he had been able to find out that much, and all she'd said to him today was all old news to him.

"**Good. Go home and do whatever it takes to prepare yourself for tomorrow, that's when the real training begins, and whether you're ready or not I am **_**not**_** holding back."**

That seemed a little cruel, but Sasori couldn't be bothered to voice his opinions so he merely nodded, and with both puppets in tow he left the house.

He left too fast though, to be able to hear the parting words Granny Chiyo had uttered.

"**Prepare yourself, or tomorrow will be a living hell for you."  
**

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Ughhh, sorry for the late update. I was museless and lazy, a horrible combination. :'D I'm sure I that I could've merged this chapter with what will be the next chapter when I write it into one chapter, but I'm too lazy for that, honestly. orz -shot- Hope you enjoyed it~ Yeah I know, it was totally pretty much a filler, but yeah. :'D Next chapter will hopefully be more exciting. xD But yeah, I totally BS'd through the whole instructions on puppetry. I used what I knew from watching Shippuden, and just rambled from there, let's not point out any flaws about it please. XD Anyway, please review! C:

**Words: **1514


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